Tracking the Israel-Iran war

I srael launched a series of strikes against Iran in the early hours of June 13th, targeting nuclear sites and missile facilities as well as Iranian commanders and nuclear scientists. Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, said the attacks—named “Operation Rising Lion”—would continue, with the aim of disabling Iran’s nuclear programme. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, promised severe retribution. Both countries have closed their airspace and Israel has declared a state of emergency, expecting retaliation. It says Iran launched 100 drones at the country as an initial response.

Israel conducted at least six waves of air strikes in the morning. The first, at around 3.30am Iranian time, struck command-and-control centres, ballistic-missile bases and air-defence batteries. Israel also targeted nuclear facilities. Social-media footage showed smoke rising from Iran’s biggest uranium-enrichment plant, near the city of Natanz; Iran has confirmed the site was damaged but given few further details. The International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA) said there was no sign of elevated levels of radiation. In subsequent strikes later in the day, Israel targeted nuclear facilities at Fordow. Other confirmed strikes hit targets in and around the airport in Tabriz, a city in north-western Iran.

Top: Iranian General Hossein Salami, killed on June 13th; Bottom: Damaged buildings in Tehran
Image: Getty Images

Israel also struck residential buildings in Tehran, the capital, to decapitate Iran’s military leadership. The Israel Defence Forces said it killed top commanders, including the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ( IRGC) and the head of Iran’s emergency command. Several other senior officials were also killed, as were some leading nuclear experts. In total, Iranian media said, 78 people died, with more than 300 injured.

General Hossein Salami, IRGC chief commander

General Salami was the commander of the most important branch of Iran’s armed forces. He held a hardline stance against America and Israel. America and the UN Security Council introduced sanctions against him for his involvement in Iran's nuclear programme.

General Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces

General Bagheri was Iran’s top-ranking officer and second in command only to the supreme leader. He took part in the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and was a veteran of Iran’s war with Iraq in the 1980s. America imposed sanctions against him during Donald Trump’s first term.

General Gholam-Ali Rashid, chief of Iran’s emergency-command headquarters

General Rashid led the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, a crucial centre for co-ordinating Iran’s military operations. Countries including Britain placed him under sanctions for his involvement in Iran’s aerial attack on Israel in April 2024.

General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, chief of IRGC’s aerospace force

General Hajizadeh led Iran's missile programme; his unit is also thought to be responsible for overseeing Iran’s drone development. Israel said it killed most of the unit’s senior officers as they gathered for an underground meeting.

Fereydoon Abbasi-Davani, nuclear scientist

Mr Abbasi-Davani was formerly head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation and a member of parliament between 2020 and 2024. He was a hardline advocate for Iran’s nuclear programme; countries including America had placed him under sanctions. He survived an assasination attempt in 2010, which Iran blamed on Israel.

Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, nuclear scientist

Mr Tehranchi was a nuclear physicist and head of a university in Tehran. He was thought to be involved in research related to nuclear weapons.

Source: News reports

For decades Israel has warned of the need to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons. Moreover, tensions between the countries grew dramatically after the attack on Israel by Hamas, an Iran-backed Palestinian militant group, on October 7th 2023, and the outbreak of wars in Gaza, Lebanon and beyond. The countries exchanged long-range attacks in April and October 2024. Now Israel claims Iran is rapidly heading towards the construction of nuclear devices. In March America’s director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, said American intelligence agencies believed “Iran is not building a nuclear weapon”. The Iranians have been in talks with America over the future of their nuclear programme. America’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said his country was not involved in the Israeli operation; Donald Trump urged Iran to make a nuclear deal with America to prevent more bloodshed.

Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing nearly 1,200 Israelis and taking around 250 hostages back to Gaza. Other Iranian proxies, such as Hizbullah in Lebanon, soon started firing rockets at Israel as the Gaza war began.

Israel bombed Iran’s embassy in Damascus, Syria’s capital. The strike killed seven Iranian officers, including General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a commander of the Quds Force, the expeditionary wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Iran fired more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel, the first strike on its rival from its own soil. With help from allies, Israel shot down almost all the missiles and drones. Five nights later Israel struck an air base near Isfahan in central Iran, though it did not publicly comment on the attack.

A bomb at a tea house in Tehran killed Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s leader. Israel later claimed responsibility.

Israel launched an attack on Hizbullah, an Iranian-backed Shia militia, in which thousands of pagers used by the group’s officials exploded across Lebanon and Syria. Ten days later Israel killed Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbullah’s long-time leader, in a strike on the group’s headquarters in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut.

Iran launched a second direct attack on Israel, firing around 200 ballistic missiles. This time at least 20 missiles are thought to have made it through Israel’s air defences.

Israel carried out its first officially acknowledged attack on Iran, launching missiles at air-defence facilities and munitions factories in three provinces. The strikes avoided nuclear sites and oil-export terminals.

Following Donald Trump’s return to office, America and Iran began to pursue a deal over Iran’s nuclear programme. Five rounds of talks took place over two months with little progress; a sixth was scheduled for June 15th.

The IAEA voted to censure Iran, saying the country gave insufficient information about its undeclared nuclear material and facilities. America, Britain, France and Germany put forward the resolution.

Israel launched large-scale operations against Iran’s nuclear and military facilities, as well as targeted strikes on top military leaders and nuclear experts, in what it called Operation Rising Lion. Israel said Iran fired around 100 drones at its territory in retaliation.

Source: News reports

Image: Getty Images

Iran will now mull further retaliation. The nature of its response will in part depend on the damage that Israel managed to inflict on its arsenal of ballistic missiles. If it has retained enough rockets, Iran may attempt to repeat last year’s salvoes against Israel in the hope of penetrating Israeli and American defences.

It could also attack American facilities in the region, or strike oil-shipping routes off its own southern coast. Such options risk drawing America into the war and dragging the Middle East into further turmoil. ■

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